Let's turn our Bibles into Romans 13. This is the last sermon in a sermon series on the civil government. And you're going to notice that this text doesn't talk about the civil government at all, and I know that. But if you remember back about maybe four weeks, five weeks ago, I started the sermon series in the end of Romans 12, and then I did Romans 13, verses 1 through 7, and now I'm doing just the text right afterwards, because I want you to understand the civil government in the context of Romans 13. So I preached before and after it to give us the context. And one other thing about this text on civil government, remember where it comes in Romans. That's very important. It comes in the last part of Romans. The first part of Romans talks about sin and misery. The middle part of Romans talks about grace and salvation in Christ. And the last part of Romans would be what we call Christian ethics, how to behave and live as Christians who have been saved by grace. So that's what we're going to look at tonight, Romans 13, verses 8 through 14. Let's pray first for God's blessing. Lord, we thank you for your word and the light of your word. We know it's a light for our path and feet, and we pray that your word by your Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts, too, tonight, as we think about love and as we think about living in light of Christ's return. So illuminate our hearts, open our hearts to receive the truths of your wonderful word. In Jesus' name, amen. Romans 13, verse 8 through the end of the chapter. Oh, no one anything, except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Beside this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. And night is far gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." God's word. If you know something is coming in your future, it tends to affect the way that you live, the way that you make your schedules, and the way that you think each day. I could give a ton of examples, but for one example, if you're going to go on a good vacation that you've been looking forward to, maybe three weeks from now, one of your favorite places to go, you're going to start setting some clothes aside, you're going to kind of get your travel bag ready, and if it's difficult at work because of a lot of drama, it won't bother you maybe quite as much because you're thinking, I'm going on vacation, three weeks, and that will kind of affect the way that you live. And again, that makes sense. I could give many more examples. Maybe you could think in your own life something good is coming ahead, and it changes the way that you act and think and live, because the future affects the present. Now, that's very true in the Christian faith as well. We know that the Christian truth, the biblical reality, that Christ is coming again, that he's going to return one day to make all things new and renew creation. for us. And that affects how we live and think and act as believers. We know that this world is not going to just continually go on like this. We know that Jesus is coming one day to bring us full salvation. And that affects the way we think. And that's kind of one of the things that Paul is getting at in this text tonight. We're going to learn this Bible truth. We know this Bible truth. If you're a Christian, you have been saved, and Christ will come and bring you full salvation. Until then, Paul is teaching, follow him in faith. Follow him in faith until he comes again. And so, Paul is saying this earlier, that's kind of how we can think about these ethics in Romans 12 and 13 and so on. He's saying, basically, Christ is coming again, so here's how you live. Don't overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. While you're waiting for Christ's return, submit to civil authority. Respect, obey, and pay taxes to God's authority, or to the authority that God has established in the world. That's how you should live until Jesus returns. And then in verses 8 through 14, Paul puts the emphasis on love and light. So the theme tonight in these verses, there's two basic parts, and you'll see it in the theme. As we present ourselves as living sacrifices, using Paul's language, as we present ourselves as living sacrifices, remembering Christ's return, Live in love and live in light. As you live as believers, waiting for the return of Christ, live in love and live in light. Now, by the way, in the first part of this sermon, when we talk about love, you're going to hear some echoes of the sermon this morning from Colossians 13. That's because Paul wrote both of these texts, and there should be some overlap. You're going to hear that. Anyway, let's start with this first point. In verses 8 through 10, the theme for this is live in love. I think you understand where I got that from. Right at the beginning, Paul says, Owe no one anything except to love each other. And Paul has already mentioned love in chapter 12. Let love be genuine, for example. He's mentioned love earlier. But he comes back to this theme and he says, Don't owe anything to anyone. But then you pause and you think, well, look back up to verse 7. It says, Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes or honor or respect. And now he says, don't owe anything to anyone. And you're maybe a little confused, and you're thinking, I mean, is Paul, like, scatterbrained, or did he forget what he just wrote and said, you know, owe these things, and now he says, don't owe these things? But obviously if you read this, one time he says, do pay what is owed, and here he says in verse 8, owe no one to anything, or owe no one anything. It's a different context or situation. And we use this kind of language the same, and we're not being contradictory. For example, if I was going to teach you how to water ski, you know, I'd maybe be out there in the water with you, and we'd have our life jackets on, and I'd say, okay, hang on, but if your skis start going underwater when you're going, let go, because you're going to be dragged way down, and you're going to drink a lot of the lake. Let go. But later on, if I'm in the boat, and you're getting up on your skis, and you're almost there, and I can see your grip slipping, I would say, hold on, hang on. And it wouldn't be contradictory. In one instance, you let go. In the other instance, you hang on. And it would make perfect sense. So in this context, if we think about it, it does make sense. Paul's not being contradictory. Earlier, he says, because civil authority has been instituted by God, we do owe honor, respect, and to pay taxes to them. But then he switches the subject a little bit, and then he's kind of talking about generally in life, however. He says, don't owe anyone anything. Don't be in debt to other people, generally. And if you are in debt, some debt's not wrong, and if you are in debt, be sure to pay it off and get out of debt. This comes from Leviticus 19, pay what you owe on time. That's kind of the principle here, owe no one anything. Except, Love. That's interesting. Paul says there's a debt that all Christians owe. It's one word. It's love. Or a couple of words. Love each other. Love one another. That's the obligation we have in the Christian life. That's what we owe. That's the debt we have to pay. It's an ongoing one. It's love each other. So you can and should pay off your car loan if you have one. You should chip away at your student loan and pay that off. But love is an ongoing debt that will never be paid off. It's not like the Christian can sometimes say, I have loved enough. But love is this debt that we owe. Now usually, I think, all of us, for most of us here, I know most of you well enough that when we hear the word debt, it's kind of a negative thing, right? Get rid of it, we pay it off. But this debt is a good debt. There's at least one good debt in the world, and it's the one that Paul is talking about here, love. So Tim Keller said, love is the only good debt. It's debt in a good sense of the term, and we owe it to others. And interestingly, love is the only debt that we pay which doesn't make us poorer. It makes us richer because it blesses other people. It's an interesting concept and I want you to meditate on this this week. We owe the debt of love and it doesn't make us poorer. It makes us richer and it makes other people richer as well. That's the beauty of love. Now, I just have to make a note as well, when it talks about this debt language, don't owe anyone anything, you probably all know this, but it's not in reference to salvation or justification. Paul is not even hinting here that if we love others, we get out of debt and it will save us. You know that's not what Paul is saying. Earlier in Romans, Paul is very clear that we are justified by grace through faith alone, not by works. So this is not like works salvation sneaking back into Paul's theology. Not at all. It's a different concept. It's ethics. It's love. Once we have been saved by grace, we are obligated to love others, but our love for others isn't what saves us. Anyway, let's move on. We have some more work to do. It says here in verse 8, the person who loves another has fulfilled the law. That's huge. the commandments you fulfilled them if you love. If you truly love someone, and it shows up in your actions, that's what love is, right? It's active. It's like you're keeping the whole law. It's like you're keeping the Ten Commandments if you truly show love. It's fulfilling the law of God. If you truly love others, you are following the deep meaning and intention of the Ten Commandments, which is to love. And Paul lists some of the commandments in verse 9. The 6th commandment, the 7th commandment, the 8th commandment, the 10th commandment, don't murder, don't steal, don't covet, do not commit adultery, those and every other, any other commandment are summed up in this phrase, this word, love your neighbor as yourself. So Paul gives some of these commandments from the second table of the law, how we should treat our neighbor. He gives a few of them here, and then he says, and any other one you could add. Any other commandment from God. It's summed up in a phrase. Love your neighbor as yourself. And that's a quote from Leviticus 19. Now it's not love your neighbor and hate yourself. And it's not hate your neighbor and love yourself. But it's love your neighbor as yourself. There's a proper order, neighbor and then self. So Paul is quoting this from the Old Testament. And the word's summed up. So all the commandments of God are summed up in the word love. Summed up here in verse 9 means it's united or brought together. So the unifying principle of all of God's commandments is love. And that's what we mentioned in Colossians 3. I said that this morning, or Paul wrote in Colossians 3. Love is the bond of perfection. It summarizes all the law. Love is the marrow of the law, the heart, the center of the law. The Old Testament said the same thing. Jesus said the same thing. What's the greatest commandment? Love God, love your neighbor. So that's interesting. You can obey the letter of the law, like you can tell the truth and not lie, and not steal, not commit adultery. But if you don't love, you're actually not keeping the commandments. Because love is the sum and substance and the summary of all the law. On the other hand, if you do love, you are keeping the law, the letter and the spirit of the law. That's what Jesus debated the Pharisees on. They were showing all these outward, external observations to the law. But they missed love. And so Jesus rebuked them. If you love, you're keeping the law. Because the whole law is summed up in the word, love your neighbor as yourself. And I can paraphrase Augustine. It's easy to keep the law when you love. Anyway, let's go on. Verse 10. It says here, Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Thus it fulfills the law. So there's that word fulfilling again. Paul uses the word fulfilling twice. Love fulfills the law, he says in the beginning. Love fulfills the law here at verse 10. There's repetition on purpose so you don't miss it. What's the fulfilling of the law? Love. And we see this perfectly in the life of Jesus. In Christ's life, he kept the law perfectly, right? In every way. He never sinned, which means he loved in a perfect way as well. And because he did this, we're saved by him in his life, death, and resurrection. There's salvation in the love of Christ and his perfect obedience. But this is also for the life of a Christian. Not perfectly, of course. But love is the fulfilling of the law. Because it does no harm to a neighbor. Love never wants to hurt someone. Love never wants to cut someone down. Love never wants someone to be in pain or suffer. Love does not hate. Love always wants what's good for others. And so Chrysostom, the church father from the fourth century, roughly A.D., said, Love is the mother of good deeds. He also says, Love is the beginning and end of virtue. Love does no evil to a neighbor. It's fulfilling the law. The law is summed up in the word love. So we'll come back to love later in the end when I do some application, but just remember for now the importance and the centrality of love in Christian ethics. I mentioned that this morning, not going to keep repeating myself, but the Bible is very clear in many different places that when it comes to Christian ethics and obedience, we do think about the commandments. We have to remember the center of them, which is love. That's what Paul is getting at here. That's how we live in light of Christ's return. Love. Now, let's look at the second point then. So that's verses 8 through 10. Now, verses 11 through the end of the chapter, I'm calling living in light. So live in love and now live in light. Let's look at these verses. Verse 11 says, Beside this you know the time, that the hours come for you to wake from sleep. So, Paul is slightly changing the topic, and he says, besides this, and that translation is fine, but it could also be, do this because you know the time. So, if you have your Bible open, it says besides this. You could also read, you know, love is a fulfilling of the law, do this because you know the time. You know, obey these Christian principles because you know the time. Now, what does time mean? It doesn't mean it's 535 or whatever. but it means like God's time in history. And Paul also uses the word hour in this text in verse 11. The hour has come and he says the day is at hand in verse 12. So this language, the time, the hour and the day that's at hand, this is language of eschatology, meaning the language of the Bible that speaks about Jesus' return. The time for Jesus' return is coming, that the hour is near, the day of Christ's return is at hand. Or like 1 John says, it is the last hour. 2 Peter talks about the day of the Lord. So live this way, what I've just told you Paul says, live this way in love because you know the time that Jesus is coming again soon. Live in light of that because the morning of Christ's return has dawned. So live this way. And he says it a little clearer too in the end of verse 11. He says salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. Or the New Living Translation says, the day of salvation will soon be here. When you first became a Christian, you know, the day of salvation was coming. But now, after you've been a Christian for a while, it's even nearer. The day of salvation is just around the corner. It's coming. And so salvation is nearer. As a Christian, there's like kind of a three-dimensional aspect of salvation. You have been saved when Christ died on the cross for you. You are being saved by God, and you will be saved on the last day. You are being saved, or you have been saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. Your salvation in all its fullness is coming when Jesus returns. It's kind of like this language of light. The dawn of Christ's eternal kingdom is near. You can just see the rising of the Son of Christ's kingdom. And when it comes, your full and final salvation will be here. The day is near. So what do we do? He's using this language, you know, do this. You know, the time, the hour has come. First of all, he says, wake up from your sleep. Because the dawn of Jesus eternal kingdom is coming, so wake up. Morning is here. Night is over, is Paul's language. The day is just around the corner. What does it mean, wake up from sleep? Obviously, we know tomorrow when you go to school or work, you have to do that, but Paul's not talking literally about waking up from a nap or a night's sleep. But it's kind of the language of Jesus. Be alert. Be watchful. Don't fall asleep in the faith. And if you've become lazy in the faith and your faith is drowsy, wake up. Because morning is coming and Jesus, the day of salvation, is in the dawn. It's kind of like the parables. Didn't Jesus tell parables about this? You could read them this week. Servants, be ready for the Master's return. Be ready for Him to return. You don't know when He's going to come again, but be ready when He does. And you know, we as Christians, we still have indwelling sin. Paul talks about that in Romans. He says, the sin that is in me I don't want to do, and I want to do what's right. He wrestles with that in Romans 7. We still have indwelling sin. So that means we as Christians also sometimes have lazy faith, or lethargy in the faith. Don't you have that in your own Christian life, where sometimes you feel tired in the faith? You don't feel very alert as a Christian. So Paul's saying, wake up. Remember that Jesus is coming and the sun is rising. Stay alert. And this is what I was talking about, I think a week or two ago in an evening sermon, I was talking about living in light of eternity. That's this. Don't get drowsy in your faith by following the world's waves. Stay strongly committed to the master's call as you await his return. And so there's a balance in the Christian life. When we think about Jesus' return here, remember this text that we're studying in Romans 13 is in a bigger part of Christian ethics. And Paul is teaching us Christian balance in light of Christ's return. He's not saying, be afraid, be anxious and worry about Christ's return. No, no, no. Not for the believer, it's good news. But he's also not saying, retreat into a commune or a compound until Jesus comes again. Nor is He saying, like right before this, overthrow authority and take over the government. He's not saying any of those extremes. He's just saying, stay alert in the faith. Put the principles of Christ's teaching to action in your life and do what He's calling us to do here. So what? Jesus is coming again. Stay awake, stay alert. But there's more. He says in verse 12, also, let's cast off the works of darkness. That's that language, again, like in Colossians, right? Put off. Take off those evil deeds. Take off those disobedient actions, like Paul mentioned in Romans 12, cursing people, revenge, hatred, and refusing to submit. You know, put those things off. But here, Paul also lists some works of darkness in verse 13. Remember, Paul is writing in first century Rome, where there was a lot of unbelievers who lived lives of unbelievers. And here's some of the things that Paul is talking about, deeds of the darkness. I'll just briefly go through them. Look in verse 13. Orgies. Orgies would be something like wild beer parties where people hook up, I guess, kind of like sex parties. Drunkenness. You know what that is, right? It's not moderation in drinking, but excess. Drinking to get drunk, not controlling yourself, but drinking so you're plastered. Sexual immorality. These are sexual acts contrary to God's law. Like sleeping around, homosexuality, sex outside of marriage. The next one is sensuality. Another work of darkness is extreme immorality. That's what sensuality means. It's like terribly sinful deeds that you don't even want to talk about. Put that off. And very interestingly, so he goes to these really dark sins like, you know, wild parties like orgies and drunkenness and sexual sin. And then he mentions quarreling in the list. Arguing. Think about that for a bit. Again, there's not like an order of sinfulness in this list. That's not what I'm saying. But when Paul is talking or thinking about deeds of darkness, he lists arguing or quarreling with sexual sins and drinking. And we all know what quarreling is, sadly, probably from experience. It's arguing, bickering at each other's throats. Paul says, put off that deed of darkness. And he also puts jealousy in the list. Envy, coveting, lusting for something that God hasn't seen fit to give you. So those are the deeds of darkness. And there's nothing light about those things. There's not a speck of light in those things. It's all darkness. And like Jesus said in John 3, all who practice evil hate the light. Those are deeds of darkness. Now, there's a context here. I mean, I could give you some different examples from the commentaries and the background stuff that I read. But in some ancient Greco-Roman cultures, they would have coming-of-age parties for young men. And I didn't write down the exact age. I don't remember when a young man would become an adult back then, 16 or 18, whatever. They would have a coming-of-age party, and Cicero, the Roman statesman, writer, he said that it was customary for there to be courtesans at the coming-of-age party for this young man. Do you know what a courtesan is? It's a female escort, to put it nicely, a prostitute, to put it badly. So, in that day, it was customary for people to throw these kind of wild parties, where there'd be drinking and illicit sex and all kinds of stuff. But Paul says, no, not for Christians. I mean, that's what the dark world does. Christians are to take off those deeds of darkness and throw them in the trash. Not be conformed to this world, like he said earlier. In fact, the last verse says, make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. We don't try to gratify the sinful desires of our flesh. That's not what we do. In fact, we say no to the sinful desires of the flesh. We don't make any provision for them. Instead, we fight them and say no, we put them off. If a Christian has a sinful desire to do these dark deeds like the world does, a Christian fights against them and tries his best to put them off. So that's how we live in light of eternity, kind of negatively, put off the deeds of darkness. Now positively, this is the last little part, positively salvation is near, right? Jesus is coming again. So as you put off the dark deeds, verse 12 says to walk properly, or 13 says to walk properly, as in the daytime. You know, don't go in the darkness with all those people of the world who are doing those dark deeds, but walk properly, walk respectfully as in the daytime. Put on the armor of light is how he also puts it here in verse 12. Walk in the light in daytime, put on the armor of light. Walking in light would be obeying Christ. And what would it mean to put on the armor of light? That's actually a beautiful imagery, isn't it? To have this bright, shining armor in a world of darkness. I love thinking about that. Well, the armor of light could be Scripture, right? God's Word is a light for our path and our feet. The armor of light, some commentaries say it's good works, good deeds, good things. So we stay out of the darkness and we walk in light of scripture's teaching. We put on the armor of light and it shines brightly because we're doing good deeds of light, not darkness. But then Paul also says in verse 14, something similar, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Walk properly, put on this bright armor and clothe yourself with Jesus himself. It's another interesting imagery. The Bible says that Jesus is the light, the truth, Jesus is wisdom, Jesus is life, Jesus is righteousness. So possibly when it says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, it means put on his characteristics, put on truth, put on wisdom, put on righteousness and live like Jesus. F.F. Bruce, one of the commentators, said, this imagery of putting on Jesus-like clothing is an idiom for playing the part. Imitate Christ in his characteristics. Put him on. That's how Paul says we should live in light of Christ's return. So once again, this text that we just went through, probably some of this last little bit about the dark and the day is maybe a little bit new to you, but I think you guys understand this, most of you. As we look ahead to Jesus' return, it should affect our living. We live in love, we live in light. Again, I'm sure if we were at a Bible study, you guys would have followed the main teaching here, and you guys know this, you've heard this before, that we should love each other and stay alert, avoid dark deeds and do good. And you know that we're already saved, but the full salvation is not yet here because Christ is not yet here. These are basic teachings of Christianity, and I know you guys well enough to know that you know these things. And so I was thinking, well, What do I do for application then? I mean, pretty straightforward, right? I have a couple of challenges I want to leave you with. I just want to challenge you as we conclude. Thinking back to the term, or the concept, or the call rather, to love. Love is a summary of the commandments, right? A fulfillment. So the question or the challenge would be for you is, How can you love more? How can you love people better? I know for sure, I've seen it here, I've seen love. I know that you love, for the most part, you show love in your families, you show love to your friends. Great, amen, keep doing that. But how can you expand your love to show love to other people outside of those circles that you're in? How can you grow in showing love to your neighbor? Something for you really to think about. I have a couple answers, and I'd like more if you have any. If we were at a Bible study, I'd write a bunch down. I think one way that we can show love better to more people is if we think less about ourselves and more about others. We often think about ourselves and we don't often think about other people, but if we think about other people, it will be easier to show them love because we'll understand what they're going through. Another way that I'd encourage you or challenge you to show love is to speak more encouraging words to other people. I'm not sure if you've had that in your life where somebody spoke an encouraging word to you at the right time and it meant the world. I just was interacting with someone about their life, and someone told them something when they were 25 years old. It was just the kindest words of love, and it affected that guy's life on and on. So I encourage you to show love by speaking encouraging words to people. And pay attention to others who might need help. This, I guess, has to go with thinking less about yourself and more about others. And listen, and see if there's somebody hurting, somebody who might need help, and reach out in love. And another one, of course, would be pray. That's always the answer, right? How can you grow in love? Well, pray about it. Ask the Lord to grow your heart in love for other people and reach out to people that you might not have done before. And then the last challenge has to do with staying alert. Again, you know this, we should love one another, but I've just given you a few challenges to grow in your love. And you know we should stay alert in the faith too. None of you here would say, yeah, it's okay to be sleepy in the faith sometimes. But once again, the question is, how can you do this? And how do you stay alert in the faith? And so my challenges would be, or lists would be something like this. You might have to evaluate your habits and schedules. Just go through your habits and your schedules and make sure they don't keep you from the devotional habits of scripture reading, prayer, and Lord's Day worship. Those are the things that keep you focused in the Christian life. Reading the Word, praying, Christian fellowship, public worship. And so the challenge would be for us to evaluate our habits and schedules and make sure those things are central. Self-discipline is key. Someone said, you know, listening to good Christian music helps us keep alert. Of course, pray. Pray that the Lord would keep us alert in the faith and not slumber. And you know, we all get into ruts sometimes. We all have ruts in the Christian life sometimes, and we need to make changes to get us out of those ruts. And we always want to grow in love and alertness. So those are some things for you to think about in those topics, love and staying alert. Anyway, let's pray for God's help in doing these things.